Psalm 10:12

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Here the acrostic arrangement is resumed with koph.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 10:12-13. Lift up thy hand — To rescue the poor, and to smite their oppressors; forget not the humble — Show, by thy appearing for their vindication, that thou dost remember and regard them. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? — Why dost thou, by giving them impunity, suffer and occasion them to despise thee?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:12-18 The psalmist speaks with astonishment, at the wickedness of the wicked, and at the patience and forbearance of God. God prepares the heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously accepts the prayer. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must seek unto him for it. Let the poor, afflicted, persecuted, or tempted believer recollect, that Satan is the prince of this world, and that he is the father of all the ungodly. The children of God cannot expect kindness, truth, or justice from such persons as crucified the Lord of glory. But this once suffering Jesus, now reigns as King over all the earth, and of his dominion there shall be no end. Let us commit ourselves unto him, humbly trusting in his mercy. He will rescue the believer from every temptation, and break the arm of every wicked oppressor, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. But in heaven alone will all sin and temptation be shut out, though in this life the believer has a foretaste of deliverance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Arise, O Lord - See the note at Psalm 3:7. This commences the second part of the psalm, in which the author calls on God to remember those who were oppressed and wronged by the wicked. By suffering the wicked thus to carry on their plans, God seemed to be indifferent to human affairs, and the psalmist, therefore, invokes him to interpose, and to rescue the afflicted from their grasp.

O God, lift up thine hand - As one does when he is about to strike, or to exert his power. The prayer is, that God would interfere to put down the wicked.

Forget not the humble - Margin, "afflicted." The margin expresses the true sense. The idea is not that God would remember "humble" persons in the sense in which that word is now commonly used, but that he would remember those who were down-trodden, crushed, and afflicted. This is in accordance with the marginal reading in the Hebrew Bibles, which is now usually regarded as the more correct reading.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. (Compare Ps 9:19; 3:7).

the humble—(Compare Ps 10:17, and Margin.)

lift up thine hand—exert thy power.

The Treasury of David

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand; forget not the humble.

With what bold language will faith address its God! and yet what unbelief is mingled with our strongest confidence. Fearlessly the Lord is stirred up to arise and lift up his hand, yet timidly is he begged not to forget the humble; as if Jehovah could ever be forgetful of his saints. This verse is the incessant cry of the Church, and she will never refrain therefrom until her Lord shall come in his glory to avenge her of all her adversaries.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Lift up thine hand, to rescue the poor, and to smite their oppressors with a hand stretched out and lifted up, that the blow maybe the greater: compare Exodus 7:5 Isaiah 5:25 9:12, &c.

Forget not the humble; show by thy appearance for their vindication that thou dost remember and regard them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Arise, O Lord,.... See Psalm 3:7;

O God, lift up thine hand; either on the behalf of his people, to help and deliver them; his hand may be said to be let down when their enemies prevail, and to be lifted up or exalted when it does valiantly, and works salvation for them; so when Moses's hands were let down Amalek prevailed, and when his hands were lifted up Israel prevailed, Exodus 17:11; or against their enemies, to strike them, to inflict punishment upon them, as God's hand is said to be stretched out against the Egyptians, and to lie upon them, when he sent his plagues among them, Exodus 7:4; and a dreadful thing it is to fall both into and under the hand of the living God, and to feel the weight of the lighting down of his arm with indignation. The Targum understands it as a gesture of swearing; see Genesis 14:22; and paraphrases it, "confirm the oath of thine hand"; either sworn in wrath against his enemies, or in love to his people; either of which is sure and certain, and according to the immutable counsel of his will;

forget not the humble; the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, the Lamb of God, by which character the saints are distinguished from the antichristian party, Revelation 14:4; these are such who are made so by the Spirit of God, who in conversion brings down the pride and haughtiness of man, that Christ and his grace may be alone exalted; these have the meanest thoughts of themselves, and the best of others; their motto is,

"less than the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners;''

they envy not the gifts and graces of others, and ascribe all they have and are to the free grace of God; they are not easily provoked, they patiently bear injuries, and quietly submit to the adverse dispensations of Providence: the word in the original text is read "humble", but written "afflicted": both characters generally meet together in the people of God; See Gill on Psalm 9:12; this prayer for the humble is a prayer of faith; for though the humble may seem to be forgotten by God, they are not, they are precious in his sight; he dwells among them, he gives more grace unto them, he comforts them when disconsolate, he feeds them when they are hungry, he teaches and guides them when they want direction, he lifts them up when they are cast down, and beautifies them with salvation.

Geneva Study Bible

{f} Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

(f) He calls to God for help, because wickedness is so far overgrown that God must help now or never.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. Arise] The usual summons to action. Cp. Psalm 3:7, Psalm 7:6 (notes); Psalm 9:19.

O God] El, as in Psalm 10:11.

lift up thine hand] The attitude of action. Cp. similar phrases in Psalm 138:7; Exodus 7:5; Micah 5:9; and contrast Psalm 74:11.

forget not the humble] Disprove the calumny of the wicked (Psalm 10:11). The Qrç ‘anavîm, ‘humble’ or ‘meek,’ is preferable to the Kthîbh ‘aniyyîm, ‘afflicted’ or ‘poor.’ The spirit in which sufferings have been borne is urged as a plea. Cp. Psalm 10:17.

12, 13. Stanza of Qôph.

12–18. An urgent plea that Jehovah will vindicate His own character by action, grounded upon a confident assurance of the present reality of His government. The alphabetical arrangement is here resumed.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Arise, O Lord (comp. Psalm 9:19). At this point the psalmist passes from description to invocation. From ver. 2 to the end of ver. 11 he has described the conduct, the temper, and the very inmost thoughts of the wicked. Now he addresses himself to God - he summons God to arise to vengeance. As Hengetenberg says, "Here the second part begins - prayer, springing out of the lamentation which has preceded;" prayer and invocation, beginning here, and terminating at the close of ver. 15. O God, lift up thine hand; i.e. to strike, to take vengeance on the wicked. Forget not the humble; or, the afflicted. Do not justify the hidden thought of the wicked (ver. 11), that thou forgettest - show that thou rememberest at once the sufferings of the afflicted, and the guilt of their oppressors. Psalm 10:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The six strophes, in which the consecutive letters from מ to צ are wanting, are completed, and now the acrostic strophes begin again with ק. In contrast to those who have no God, or only a lifeless idol, the psalmist calls upon his God, the living God, to destroy the appearance that He is not an omniscient Being, by arising to action. We have more than one name of God used here; אל is a vocative just as in Psalm 16:1; Psalm 83:2; Psalm 139:17, Psalm 139:23. He is to lift up His hand in order to help and to punish (נשׂא יד, whence comes the imperat. נשׂא equals שׂא, cf. נסה Psalm 4:7, like שׁלח יד Psalm 138:7 and נטה יד Exodus 7:5 elsewhere). Forget not is equivalent to: fulfil the לא שׁכח of Psalm 9:13, put to shame the שׁכח אל of the ungodly, Psalm 10:11! Our translation follows the Kerמ ענוים. That which is complained of in Psalm 10:3, Psalm 10:4 is put in the form of a question to God in Psalm 10:13 : wherefore (על־מה, instead of which we find על־מה in Numbers 22:32; Jeremiah 9:11, because the following words begin with letters of a different class) does it come to pass, i.e., is it permitted to come to pass? On the perf. in this interrogative clause vid., Psalm 11:3. מדּוּע inquires the cause, למּה the aim, and על־מה the motive, or in general the reason: on what ground, since God's holiness can suffer no injury to His honour? On לא תדרשׁ with כּי, the oratio directa instead of obliqua, vid., on Psalm 9:21.